TC140: Jim Penders, UConn

His father was a high school coach and his grandfather was a high school coach — both with four state championship trophies to show for their efforts. Even though Jim Penders took a brief foray over to the Dark Side (briefly dabbling in politics), he appeared to be destined to return to coaching. And coaching he is — very successfully, I might add.

Coach Penders is another of the Northeast guys who making quite a name for himself in an environment that’s as unfriendly to spring baseball as they come at UConn. After leaving his cleats behind in the Fenway Park dugout after completing his collegiate playing career, Coach Penders has set about the business of coaching. In this episode he talks about the new stadium in the works, competing in the American Athletic Conference, conference realignments, the Graduate Assistant position, and staffing — noting that one of his assistants, Chris Podeszwa, is a long time volunteer and a high school teacher who demonstrates what you can do with creative staffing.